


Bird with a broken wing

by HufflepuffleMarauder



Series: Flightless [2]
Category: Kung Fu Panda (Movies)
Genre: Arguing, Friendship, Gen, Post SotS, They make up in the end, repressed trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:42:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26462107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HufflepuffleMarauder/pseuds/HufflepuffleMarauder
Summary: Crane initiates a fight between him and Tigress, which results in a broken wing and past memories dug from the ground.
Relationships: Crane & Tigress (Kung Fu Panda)
Series: Flightless [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1928191
Comments: 7
Kudos: 36





	1. Poor bird

**Author's Note:**

> This is a continuation of my one-shot Fly which would not leave my mind. 
> 
> You don't have to read the previous one-shot, but this will have a better effect if you do. But if you don't want to, then the main plot is my headcanon that Crane couldn't always fly due to a fear of heights. There's a bit more to it but that's all you really need for this story. 
> 
> Side note to clear up any confusion - there is one line of Crane's train of thought that mentions the name Jia. That's basically just the name I headcanon'ed for him.

* * *

Tigress was an odd one, Crane thought.

Initially she sparked his interest. Looking into her eyes, full of fierce determination and passion he couldn't help but think of Mei Ling. Even after watching her fight the Boar he was amazed by how _good_ she was. Mei Ling was the best in the academy and yet this teenager could give her a run for her money.

But when he started to settle into the Jade Palace he realised she bore no other resemblances to Mei Ling. While Mei Ling was warm, friendly and kindhearted Tigress was cold, stiff and unmistakably antisocial. She spent half her time training and the other half being cruelly berated by Shifu. Crane guessed it was the harsh and brutal training that made her so... contrasting to Mei Ling. As far as he'd gathered, she'd been there for a very long time, perhaps even her whole life. He wanted to ask, still being very curious at how elusive she was. But if he was being honest with himself, he was terrified of her.

Scared of angering her, yes. But also scared of upsetting her. She appeared mysteriously fragile behind the tough exterior. She was only a teenager after all, and his heart ached whenever he saw her face fall after Shifu would give his daily dose of criticism. Crane was still unsure on her exact age, but she was undeniably young and, in his uneducated opinion, didn’t deserve half the rubbish Shifu gave her. Even he had to admit that it was pretty draining for him too. Even just a month training with this master he already felt his self-esteem fall almost to what it was before he could fly. It was getting frustrating, and Crane could only close his beak and get on with it, just like Tigress did.

But eventually, this frustration would break out.

It finally did one day when Shifu had them spar together.

This was the thirteenth time (not that he kept count) and Crane could only assume that they were paired together so frequently because they were similar heights; but he did not see eye to eye with Shifu on this. Tigress was unnaturally strong with a speed he could only match if he were in the air. But it wouldn't be a fair fight if he did that, and Tigress would surely go even harder on him. The problem was that Tigress beat him _every damn time_ and it was getting slightly irritating. If he could only bring the fight to the sky he could finally come out of their spars with his dignity intact. But that wasn't the true way of a Kung Fu warrior.

Crane wanted to scoff at his inner monologue. A _true_ kung fu warrior would certainly not be incompetent enough to have to cheat in a simple spar with a teenager.

Shifu stood in front of them, already a set scowl in his features, as if he knew Crane would disappoint him.

"Stand ready!" Said Shifu.

"Yes Master." They echoed.

Tigress readied her pose as if it was second nature. Crane readied his and couldn't rid the intrusive thoughts of how wounded his dignity would end up.

"Begin!" And he snapped his fingers.

Tigress instantly aimed a round kick to his long neck, one of his vulnerable spots. He knew it wasn't meant to break him, but he didn't know how much control she had over her strength. He ducked and created a large gust of wind with his wings to push her back. This let him go in for the attack and he delivered a powerful kick of his own into her stomach - which she blocked easily, grabbing hold of his leg and swooped a low kick to his other one. This completely caught him off balance.

"Use your wings Crane!" Shifu yelled from somewhere off the side.

Tigress stopped for a second, letting Crane pick himself up. He used this to fly over her and kick her in the back. He knew it was a nasty move and not exactly honourable, but it wasn't as if it worked. Tigress was too quick for him and rolled onto the ground to avoid his talons. His only victory came when she went for a punch and he deflected it with his wing, a momentary mental celebration happened in his mind and he didn't notice the second punch. He also blocked this one, but he didn't brace himself for the pain that would come. And his wing _hurt._ How could she be so careless? Did she not know that birds were fragile?

Angry, frustrated and humiliated, Crane did the unforgivable. He flew low, wrapped his talons around her ankle, and took her to the sky. Seeing her startled and hearing her yelp was horribly satisfying for him. As far as he knew, she'd never been so far from the ground.

"Crane!" She yelled, the fear obvious in her voice. "PUT ME DOWN NOW!"

He continued to flap his wings, taking them higher and higher. "You want to be put down now?" He asked her innocently, not caring about her anger.

"YES!" He could see her glowing eyes glare at him and felt a little bit guilty.

"Are you sure?" He couldn't really say it was an honest question, they _were_ very high off the ground and at that point he was slightly concerned. But then again, she _was_ demanding to be put down.

"CRANE!"

 _Alright then._ He let go and watched her scramble desperately at the air. The longer it took her to reach the ground the more Crane realised how far he'd flown. _If she dies, then it's all my fault._ The sudden fear was all-consuming, and the guilt followed soon after. Even though the devil on his shoulder insisted she was going to be fine _not everyone is scared of heights Jia, she’ll be fine._ Yes, yes, cats always land on their feet, right? But she _was_ terribly high up… His moral compass disagreed, and so he shot down like an arrow and grabbed her again just before she hit the stone of the courtyard and broke her leg. This immediately winded her and the sound of her gasped and laboured breathing did nothing to make him feel any less guilty.

But he was still frustrated.

With the guilt still heavy in his mind and his logic clouded by anger, he flew her over to one of the nearby trees and found a perfect set of branches for his plan. Letting her go one last time, she grabbed the branch on instinct, and was left dangling at a considerable height.

“I will _kill_ you!” She growled, moving her paws restlessly about the branch.

Crane just flapped, saying nothing. Of course he knew she was going to kill him after this little… “stunt” of stupidity. But he was absolutely sure Shifu would get there first.

Tigress had managed to pull herself up with an impressive show of strength (really, he should have expected such things from her) and gripped the top of the branch on all-fours in a cat-like stance, her tail lashing wildly. “Don’t try and jump on me,” Crane warned her, conscious of their current height. “you’ll fall.”

She scoffed. “I’m not stupid, and I doubt you’re strong enough to hold yourself up if I jump you.”

Crane had to refrain from rolling his eyes at her back-handed insult. It was a little below the belt and certainly off-topic, but he couldn’t argue it wasn’t un-called for.

“Do you need help getting –“

“I can manage without wings thanks.” Tigress retorted, in juxtaposition to her dodgy balance.

“Listen, I know what I did was bad but –“

“Understatement of the century.” She muttered darkly.

“But you’re going to fall, just let me fly you down.”

“Shut up! I’m trying to concentrate!”

The concentration appeared to be extremely redundant as, while she tried to retreat to the tree trunk and edge herself down that way, her legs trembled as she was unaccustomed with such thin and unsecure territory. Crane wasn’t about to step in, no way, she’d explicitly stated that she didn’t want his help. Even though it was his fault she was stuck in a tree anyway, he was _not_ going to intervene. Not even if she –

One wrong step later and Tigress was falling once again.

Luckily for her, it was much shorter this time, and not as death-defying.

Unluckily for her, Crane was certainly not fast enough to reach her in time.

It wasn’t even a decision to break his personal promise, just instinctual to catch her. And definitely more morally inclined than watching her suffer to nature while he flapped away. Even though his heart was in the right place (he had to commend himself for that), it did nothing for the situation. At the time he clocked up his failure to not knowing she was going to fall. But in his later years he looked back and realised that, though he was fast, his reflexes lacked incredibly so.

Tigress landed on her feet, crouching down low as to minimize the pain of falling directly onto stone. She was breathing heavily. And not from exhaustion, from fear, or perhaps anxious butterflies. The past few minutes had been rather nerve-inducing. Crane had to say he held his breath in anticipation of a horrifying injury or a terrible landing on her part.

He touched down next to her. “Are you alright?” He asked quietly.

Apparently, this was not the right thing to say as she ferociously _growled_ at him (he’d never met a tiger, and the growling was especially chilling) and ran back to where Shifu was.

Ah, Shifu. If he hadn’t already, he was surely going to get kicked out.

Crane shifted from foot to foot nervously. His fate looked bleak, and so did his reputation. Even though the five of them (save for Tigress) were still incredibly new to this whole kung fu thing, he had become the first to initiate a dispute. And not just a dispute, a physical fight that was, after pondering on it, extremely one-sided. Having the sudden realization that what he did was as stupid as it was horrible, he started the slow walk back. The last thing he wanted to do was face Shifu (the devil himself) and inevitably get beaten up. But at least walking back showed a small ounce of bravery, right?

If looks could kill, Crane would have been on fire the moment he stepped into Shifu’s line of sight.

As expected, Tigress appeared to be immensely… _oh_ \- sad? That was weird. Crane would have betted all his belongings that she’d be as smug as ever for snitching on him to Shifu as payback. Except her features were downcast, and she held herself close, like she was trying to shrink into the ground and never come out. By the looks of it, Shifu had a word with her. But Crane couldn’t imagine it was anything bad, it wasn’t as if it was _her_ fault he behaved like an idiot.

“Master Shifu, I –“ He started.

Shifu held his hand up to silence him. “I have a punishment for you both that will… benefit you – if done properly.”

* * *

Shifu’s genius punishment consisted of simply leaving them in the Palace. Alone. No supervision at all.

He took Viper, Monkey and Mantis away on a mission. Or some teaching thing. Or perhaps just a short excursion to give himself and Tigress time to tolerate each other. Crane didn’t know, he was too busy contemplating what his life had become to listen. Either way, everyone was gone within a snap of Shifu’s fingers and Crane found himself cooped up in his room to reflect on the day’s events.

He screamed inside his head in frustration. For the first time in years he lost control and let his anger get the best of him. The only other time he genuinely let go with every bit of pent up anger was the day he learned to fly. Learned was a loose term for it, really. The more precise word would be forced. Because thinking about it, he really forced himself into flying. Not that he regretted it, but the memory was still painful. It still seemed far too fresh despite how long ago it was and Crane was not ready to face it head-on with introspection.

Taking a deep breath, he opened his door and was greeted with an empty, silent hallway. He stalked sulkily to the kitchen for something to eat. As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t hide in his room forever.

As he scrutinised how much food was in storage Tigress entered the kitchen.

Upon seeing her his blood turned to ice.

Her face was thunderous and she looked absolutely ready to murder him. Which, to be honest, she had every right to. She never enlightened him on whether he actually hurt her or not, but he definitely caused her more humiliation than physical pain.

Crane found he couldn’t even squeak out a simple “sorry”.

“Thanks for that stupid stunt you pulled back there.” She growled, flexing her claws menacingly.

“I didn’t mean to –“

“One doesn’t ‘accidentally’ drop someone.” She interrupted, scowling even further.

Crane was steadily losing patience with the world and did not have the heart or bravery to face Tigress like this. He said nothing and made his way out the door.

Tigress blocked it with her paw. “We’re not done yet.”

He groaned and, in retaliation, aimed for her neck with a swoop of his wing. Once again she easily deflected his blow and pushed him back with an open-palm strike.

“Stop fighting with me and just get over it!” He growled, while kicking her in the stomach.

She twisted his leg away and delivered a blow to his side. “You started this in the first place!”

“Shifu is angry at both of us so it’s not just me!”

“It’s _because_ of you!”

“Well if you were _friendlier_ then I wouldn’t have picked you up in the first place!”

In hindsight, what he said was a little idiotic. But it was in the heat of the moment, and Tigress didn’t exactly let him take it back.

Flames set in her eyes and she punched him with all her strength. The problem was, Crane was stupid enough to try and use his wing to block her punch, and he didn’t have the time to properly think through his actions.

There was an incriminating crack after contact was made.

Broken.

She jumped back immediately, looking at his wing in horror. “Oh no, no I’m sorry – I didn’t mean to – I’m so sorry.” She muttered.

Crane could hardly hear her over the roaring in his ears.

Pain was the first thing he registered. A resounding snapping tremored all the way through so much that it was a little disturbing. The ache was immediate, of course the throbbing was annoying but that ache hurt like anything. His wing felt like it was on fire, and if he hadn’t been staring at it in a daze then he’d have sworn it had been dipped in boiling water.

Then he made the realisation.

“You broke my wing.” He uttered, voice monotone despite his inner crisis. “It’s broken.”

“I’m so sorry, that wasn’t my intention.” Tigress said guiltily, curling her paws into fists and looking as if she was trying to hide them. “I’ll bandage it for you.”

“No no no, you don’t understand.” He finally made eye contact with her. “My wing is _broken,_ this means _I can’t fly._ ” He hissed out the words with desperation he hadn’t had since… since not being able to fly.

Tigress didn’t say anything.

Crane’s breaths started coming out in short spurts, and though he tried to keep them even his lungs protested madly. “Now I can’t fly!” He repeated.

Tears pricked his eyes and he knew he had to get out. Find somewhere private. Walk away like he did the last time.

“ _Sorry_.” She whispered.

“If I can’t fly then it means… it means…” He almost choked on the words. _It means I fall._

“Crane I’m sorry, I just – I…” Tigress faltered, drawing herself in and moving out from in front of the doorway, giving him an escape. “sometimes my strength is too much – and I forget that.”

He pointed his beak to the floor, and didn’t give her a response. Truth be told he wasn’t completely listening. All he could hear was the memories he’d tried to hard to suppress. Memories buried deep in the crevices of his mind.

Including his embarrassing phobia.

Of course, he hadn’t suffered from acrophobia for a number of years. And for a while he believed it to be completely gone due to the absence of ice in his blood whenever he ascended to the sky. He could fly, and he was good as well. He’d been told that a fair few times. Making it off the ground no longer felt like a life-threatening decision. His wings were there to catch him.

But in retrospect, it was just his feeling of safety. His acrophobia never left, of course it never did. He was born that way and there was no fixing it.

He walked out the kitchen in a daze, Tigress’ pleading apologies falling deaf to his ears.

* * *

The meager paper walls were not enough to disguise his sounds of pain.

Crane had tried to keep his wincing to a minimum. He’d just barely managed to put his wing in a poorly made sling. The fabric he’d found in Mantis’ room did the job well enough, but it was more the lack of medical training he had that proved the sling useless. The years he’d spent at Lee Dai meant he’d seen his fair share of injuries spread across the various sparring matches. And he had to hide his obvious sadistic enjoyment when Mei Ling knocked out one of the rhinos who’d taken a dig at him that day. Epicaricacy, his mother called it, saying that it would always come back to haunt him _so you shouldn’t ever enjoy someone else’s pain._ Epicaricacy was what got him and Tigress into this whole mess to start with, Crane realised with a sinking feeling of disappointment.

 _I guess this is my punishment then,_ he thought bitterly as he tried to get into a sleeping position comfortable enough where his wing didn’t have to be folded in painfully. He eventually settled on an awkward yet relaxing stance where his wing hung to one side with room for his beak to rest underneath. Eyes closing, he felt sleep start to take him…

Until someone rudely opened the door.

He jumped and let out a startled squawk, followed by a groan in pain as it put strain on his wing.

“Oh, sorry about that.” Tigress said, watching him recover roughly, _she’s probably really enjoying this._

He grunted in acknowledgement. “What do you want.” He said, though it came out a bit colder than he’d intended. 

Tigress took a deep breath, as if to control herself. “Listen, about today…”

A groan of frustration passed his beak. “If you’ve come here to have a go at me then I suggest you _leave._ ” He hissed.

She almost backed away at his harsh tone, but impressively, she held her ground. “No, I came here to…” She faltered and looked down at her feet. “apologise.”

Crane turned round to face her fully for the first time since she entered his room.

“What I did to your wing was… pretty bad.”

He snorted loudly at the understatement, and she glared at him before carrying on. “There really was no excuse for what I did and… I apologise for that. I don’t really know what came over me, but I promise, it will never happen again.” Her head was bowed, and she appeared to be filled with the appropriate amount of guilt.

Crane nodded along happily, finding satisfaction in her humble apology. “Yes, breaking anyone’s wing is inexcusable.” He confirmed, as if he was a parent accepting a child’s sorry for a wrongdoing. He had to be a little grateful as well, for her lack of questioning over how much he overreacted.

“But _you_ also need to apologise.” She said firmly, crossing her arms over her chest with a deep scowl, eerily reminding him of Shifu.

“What?!” He spluttered, giving her an incredulous look. “You _broke_ my wing! What am I supposed to be saying sorry about?!”

“Uh hello?” She pointed towards the courtyard. “You _dropped_ me! Which is the thing that got us into this mess in the first place, you are in no position to be a hypocrite.”

At this point Tigress seemed more sad than angry, and Crane felt the guilt again.

“Okay _fine,_ I’m sorry for dropping you.” He forced out, knowing that he did not sound at all sorry.

Her glare increased. “I don’t believe you.”

 _Why is she so stubborn?!_ He let out a long-drawn sigh. “I – I don’t know why I did it.” He lied. “I guess my whole time here became very… _frustrating._ You probably wouldn’t understand but-“

“Don’t say that.” She warned, and suddenly this _teenager_ made him want to tremble in fear. “I’ve learnt under Shifu far longer than you have.”

Her words were heavy with unsaid implications. Crane knew that Shifu was a harsh teacher. Some might say his words went too far and cut deeper than any wound could, and Crane couldn’t find it in himself to disagree. The teachers in Lee Dai academy had their fair share of bad moments. Often causing even the most intimidating gorillas to quit in humiliation the same day. But Shifu was something else. Crane had seen it from the first day they met, when he scolded Tigress horribly for an honest mistake. It was honestly a wonder how she hadn’t cracked yet.

“I used to work in Lee Dai obviously, and I always dreamt of doing kung fu. But it always seemed so unattainable. The only animals who learnt there were large, strong and not…” He stopped himself before saying the word weak. “well, not like me.

He started again, going ‘on the wing’ as it were with his lie, and hoped that it was elaborate enough to hide the truth.

“I actually did the exam to get into the academy,” He carried on, scratching the floor with his talons as a mean to distract himself. “I would have got in except I broke the rule of using a weapon.”

Tigress nodded slowly. “Alright…” She frowned. “but where are you going with this? I just want to know why you dropped me.”

One of his talons scratched a mark into the floorboard. She was starting to get on his nerves.

“It’s implied,” He said coldly, narrowing his eyes at her. “I’m not used to harsh criticism the way Shifu does it.”

She opened her mouth to speak but he held up his good wing. “And before you say anything, I _did_ receive grating words as a cleaner, it’s no easy job. But my main frustration these days has stemmed from – well, I guess being a lot worse at kung fu than I thought I would be.” He bowed his head down humbly. “And it also doesn’t help that you keep beating me when we spar.”

The sound of Tigress’ exhale echoed in the silent room. Neither of them said anything.

“All those times we did spar though, you could have used your wings,” She started, seeming almost scared to say something that would make him upset after his admission. “you’re lucky you can fly, it’s a privilege.”

Crane snorted before he could stop himself. “Tell me about it.”

“What?” She looked at him questioningly.

He shook his head quickly. “Nothing, nothing.” He muttered, brushing off the topic with enough seamlessness that she didn’t press him on it any further.

“Shifu even said your wings are useful,” She carried on. “you need to learn to use them, _properly._ ”

Agitation ran through his bones. “Are you saying I’m a bad flier?”

Tigress held her ground, stoicism still intact. “No, I’m saying that you need to learn how to fly in battle – and dropping me is not the right way to go about that.”

“Alright I get it,” He rolled his eyes at her, though there was no malice behind the action that time. “are we done now? I’m tired.”

Tigress smiled wryly. “I also wanted to offer a proposition.” She locked eyes with him intently, and crossed her arms over her chest.

“A… what?”

She cleared her throat. “From now on, whenever we spar, we draw or you win.”

He blinked at her. “What?”

“We stop the spar when you see fit and call it a draw, or you get one over on me and you win.”

Tigress was looking far too proud of herself.

“Why? What will that do for you?”

“Part of this agreement is that during our sparring sessions, you don’t fly.” His beak dropped open and she smirked.

“But you _just_ told me I needed to learn how to use my wings in battle!” He exclaimed.

“Sparring between me and you is a complicated matter, and that won’t apply.”

He fluttered his good wing irritably and sighed. “Sure, yeah, whatever.”

“By you winning or calling it a draw we avoid you getting frustrated at me beating you.” She inspected her claws in the same way Mei Ling would do when she was proud of whatever plan she’d come up with. “Our kung fu styles are unfairly matched anyway, so this balances out our dynamic.”

Crane nodded slowly. It was still confusing, but her philosophy was starting to make sense.

“And then if we use the rule of you not flying it means that _I_ won’t get angry and break your wing again.” She shrugged, grinning. “What do you think? Are you in?” 

“Are we telling the others about this?”

“Probably not, we want to give you some extra street cred anyway.” She winked.

Crane felt a smile coming on. “Alright, I’m in.”

They shook on it.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been in my laptop since I published Fly. Which is... a while. The idea for this hit me so quickly but (if you've seen me on the front page you probably know this) I just set about writing a load of other stuff because I got tired of angst. So this is me going back to good ol' sad things haha. I managed to properly get this finished because I wanted to finally clear this from my list of WIPs (always growing...) so I could get started on the other stuff that has also been stuck in my laptop since May. 
> 
> This Flightless series will be continued. I'm not done with it yet. If it wasn't already obvious by now, I really love Crane's character, and I love creating backstories. So I've got a few one-shots left for this headcanon ficverse. 
> 
> Don't forget to leave kudos if you enjoyed and maybe even write a comment telling me your thoughts!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is for MijumaruFan, for whom is the reason this second part even left my drafts...

Shifu’s genius punishment that consisted of leaving them alone in the Jade Palace had gone surprisingly well. So well, in fact, that Shifu himself was rendered bewildered at their lack of animosity towards each other.

Viper, Mantis, Monkey and Shifu came to the barracks late in the evening to find Crane and Tigress eating dinner together. Not just a civil dinner, a friendly one. It was miraculous, Crane thought proudly, that they’d managed to sort their differences in such a mature manner. Obviously he had to lend it to Tigress for plucking up the courage to come to his room in the first place. She was far more mature than he initially coined her as.

“Everything went well I presume?” Shifu asked them, staring passively at their cosy dinner in the limelight.

“Yes Master.” They echoed, and Crane couldn’t help but smile a little.

“No fights then?” He continued.

“No fights Master.” Crane confirmed. Tigress gave him a subtle quizzical look at the lack of mentioning the elephant in the room.

His broken wing was well on its way to being fully healed. He’d decided to shed the sling for their dinner, just in time for Shifu and the others to return. Unbeknownst to Tigress, he still felt a flush of embarrassment over how overtly he showed his terror at the prospect of not flying. Though in the past week he’d tried to stamp down on it forcefully, he knew he’d never get rid of that existential knowledge of what would happen if he permanently lost his ability to fly. But Crane had done a pretty good job of adjusting without Tigress noticing a change in his demeanour.

They found that his wing most likely wasn’t entirely broken. Fractured maybe, but not horribly damaged. It meant more relief for him and less stress for Tigress. He still couldn’t fly – or hadn’t tried since the pain scared him a little. He was tempted to ask Mantis to take a look at it but couldn’t bear the thought of someone else touching and inspecting his wing like that.

Shifu left the dining room at the confirmation of peace, still stoic but without that usual disappointed look on his face.

Viper smiled brightly at them. “You guys had fun then?”

Crane tilted his head at her with a matching smile. “It was alright.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t tear each other to shreds,” Mantis commented. “Me and Monkey had a bet going that Crane would be dead by the end of the week.”

“And who lost this bet?” Tigress asked dryly.

Monkey rolled his eyes and reached into his pocket with a low groan, taking out a handful of yuan and placing it in front of Mantis.

“You two are insufferable, honestly.” Viper tutted, though with an underlying tone of fondness and Crane wondered if the three of them had bonded on their journey too.

“What did you guys even do to get punished anyway?” Asked Monkey, jumping up on the chair next to Tigress. “Shifu was so mad that he didn’t tell us what you did.” He looked at Tigress then Crane closely, as if diagnosing them with the answer.

In all honesty, Crane didn’t want the others knowing what had happened. He wasn’t sure how much of a predisposed judgement this would give them of his personality and he wasn’t keen to find out. Plus the fact that was he initially did to Tigress was incredibly cruel and he regretted it in every feather he had.

As if reading his mind, Tigress locked eyes with him and gave the slightest shake of her head.

“That’s a secret.” He told Monkey, rather smugly.

“Now that’s just unfair…” Viper muttered, slithering up to the empty chair he stood in front of. “you guys can’t seriously be this secretive.”

“We’ll find out eventually I tell you.” Mantis said with false fanfare. “I’ll get it out of you!” He mocked an outraged Shifu and they chuckled at him.

_Rather miraculous._

_

A little over a month later bandits attacked one of the nearby villages.

They sprang into action as soon as they could, travelling in a way reminiscent of their first battle together. It was exhilaratingly _fun_ and any of Crane’s doubts about the severity of training under Shifu disappeared as he flew at top speed against the wind. It had been a while since he’d last flown like that, and paired with the others – no – his _friends_ – he couldn’t help but grin in the face of danger.

Even after only a couple months of official kung fu training they were pretty good, if Crane could say so himself. Tigress was still blindingly _good,_ but Viper, Mantis and Monkey were catching up with her. He felt a strange sense of pride as he flew over the top of everyone’s heads, momentarily swooping down to injure an enemy or help someone out.

The battle ended almost as soon as it had begun, though it felt quite a long longer than that as Crane’s bones ached from physical exertion. He was just about to touch down when someone called him.

“Crane!”

Turning round, he saw with a sigh that their battle was _not_ over and Tigress was waving him over.

“Pick me up!” She yelled, running to him for emphasis.

Crane kept himself in the air, just out of reach. “What? I thought you said I wasn’t allowed to do that!”

“I don’t care just – pick me up!” She repeated.

“But you said –“

“CRANE!”

“FINE!” He retorted, and rolled his eyes so much it hurt. “FINE THEN!” He repeated, swooping down to let her grab hold of his legs. “WHATEVER YOU WANT!” He huffed out his final statement angrily.

He tried to ignore her stupid grin as he obeyed her ridiculous request. Tigress was obviously out of her mind, and Crane couldn’t wait to hold it over her head later when whatever she had planned for them failed.

“Take me over there!” She said, swinging herself in the direction of the last few straggling bandits.

The shift in her weight caused Crane to dip slightly, and flap a little harder to keep himself up. If they were going to carry on doing this he’d have to teach her some flying etiquette, because she currently was committing all hard the “don’ts” as a passenger.

Once over the bandits, she dropped and feeling the weight of a teenaged tiger suddenly come off him Crane breathed a sigh of relief. He watched her fall down in a perfect somersault, crushing the closest one with pure force. Wincing, Crane turned away to fly back to the others, it seemed like she’d be fine on her own for the time being, she was Tigress after all.

Suddenly, the _same_ weight of a teenaged tiger hit him with all the force he didn’t know she was capable of. All four paws crashed into his back and he looked up just in time to see her leap towards the sky and take out the final enemy. It winded him more than he’d like to admit, and he certainly dropped a foot or two in altitude.

The slight bruising on his back and the panicked flapping of his wings meant his recovery took longer than it should have. To catch his breath, he hovered for a moment and simply breathed. It was a steady relief that whatever Tigress had planned clearly worked, and soon she’d have those bandits taken care of and she’d be out of his feathers.

Tigress (she was really getting on his nerves) didn’t want to leave him in peace as she had leapt up to grab onto his legs again, dipping them down in altitude because of her recklessness with flying.

“WHY!” He yelled out, flying back to the palace where everyone else would already be. “STOP DOING THAT!”

Tigress’ childlike laugh rang out loud, and though Crane was bruised, confused, and annoyed, he could only roll his eyes since it was the happiest he’d heard her.

“Did you see what we did?!” She tugged on his legs happily.

“Yes but - !”

“We defeated them!” She shouted up at him.

“Well _obviously –!_ “

“It worked!”

“What worked? You using me as a springboard?!”

“ _And_ you dropping me on the bandits!”

“I –“ Crane started to berate her for being so brash with her methods of fighting the bandits, but stopped himself. They weren’t too far from the scene and he glanced back, catching sight of a collection of unconscious bodies. Tigress did a hell of a good job fighting them, and, he supposed, he did his fair share too in the battle. “Yeah it – it worked.” He said, more to himself than her.

She laughed again, more satisfied with an edge of pride. “New rule, you pick me up when we fight together!”

Crane didn’t have to say it to tell her he agreed.

Upon arrival at the Jade Palace, Tigress finally let go of his legs and fell in a graceful somersault to the ground.

Crane ruffled his feathers thoroughly, there were surely a few bent after their ordeal. “At one point,” He said to her, still panting from slight exhaustion. “remind me to teach you how to hold onto me _properly_.” To which she sighed good-naturedly.

“Oh and – I, erm, I retract my previous statement,” She clicked her claws together in a nervous tick. “you know, when I said you wouldn’t be strong enough for me to jump you.”

In light of everything they’d been through in that moment, Crane found her apology slightly hilarious.

He put a wing round her shoulders. “You can be so unintentionally funny sometimes.”

Though he had to admit their friendship started incredibly rocky, he was ultimately grateful for their earlier shenanigans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You'll have to congratulate me for being so forgetful that I finished this back in October but didn't realise until now... haha *bows in guilt* 
> 
> This second part is inspired by the fight scene on the bridge with Tai Lung. I found it quite sweet how natural it was for Tigress to grab onto Crane's legs, then jump onto him to deliver the final punch to Tai Lung. (nevermind sweet it's just FUNNY) 
> 
> So in dedication to MijumaruFan, who kept me going with her random encouragements :) go check out her KFP fics on A03 if you're a Tigress fan too *nudge nudge*


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